MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US supports EU candidate for WTO chair

United States implicitly supported this Tuesday in Brussels French candidate Pascal Lamy for the post of World Trade Organization Director General, who is competing with three other hopefuls, Luiz Felipe Seixas Correa from Brazil; Carlos Perez del Castillo from Uruguay and Jayen Cuttaree, Mauritius Island.

US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick described Mr. Lamy as a "very solid candidate" although he rejected the idea of an understanding with the EU regarding the recent nomination of Paul Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank in exchange for the WTO post for the Europeans as was suggested by several world leading newspapers.

"Obviously I consider Commissar Lamy a friend and an experimented leader in trade affairs. We consider him a solid candidate", said Mr. Zoellick. "We've clearly said we'd feel very comfortable with Mr. Lamy although we know that there are other very good candidates" to replace Supacahi Panitchpakdi (from Thailand) as Director General of WTO.

Mr. Pascal Lamy already has the support from the 25 EU member countries.

Last week's nomination of Mr. Wolfowitz, former US Deputy Secretary of Defence and one of the masterminds behind the Iraq war, as head of the World Bank was interpreted as the result of an understanding between Washington and Brussels.

"I hope it's not true: If it has been agreed there's no room for nobody else. The World Bank is under US control, the IMF under the EU and they act as if they owned the organizations", said Mauritius island candidate Jayen Cuttaree.

However Mr. Zoellick rejected those speculations saying that "I've seen the claims about an agreement. There's not such agreement. Commissar Lamy is a very strong candidate, he doesn't need an agreement".

Uruguayan candidate Perez del Castillo underlined that since the WTO must conclude towards the end of 2006 the Doha round trade negotiations directed to liberate trade and help poor countries develop, "it must be a citizen from a developing country who presides over WTO", recalling that the WTO, and its predecessor the GATT, --with the exception of Thailand's Panitchpakdi--, have always been conducted by Europeans.

The next head of WTO must be nominated by consensus at the latest by May 31 and a General Council has been convened in Geneva with that purpose for May 26/27.

The process began this week with the "consultations" round which is the task of Kenyan Ambassador Amina Mohamed who will have to meet with representatives from the 148 WTO members, to first elaborate a short list and then the final consensus nomination.

Mr. Perez del Castillo has the support from Latinamerica, with the exception of Brazil, Cuba and Venezuela, plus Australia and New Zealand who belong to the Cairns group.

Mr. Seixas Correa has been promised the vote of China and the G-20. Mr. Cuttaree is running with the support of 56 members from Africa, Caribbean and Pacific members. But under French pressure, African francophone countries could bend for Mr. Lamy.

Mr. Zoellick finally indicated that "United States has an important role to play" in the WTO consulting process, but also cautioned that "sometimes we can help, and sometimes we can't".